Page 128 of Lost

She shrugged again. “Less than the deaths of hundreds of innocent people.”

“Aphrodite, how are your mama and daddy doin’ over here?” Stevie Rae asked her.

Aphrodite looked surprised by the question but answered easily. “My father died a year ago of a heart attack. My theory is my mother finally bitched him to death. She is now the mayor of Tulsa.”

Dragon snorted in contempt. “Frances LaFont is firmly in Neferet’s camp.”

“Not literally, though,” Aphrodite said. “She’d never step foot on the House of Night property. She prefers to remain safe in the luxury of the Skelly Mansion and just agree with everything Neferet commands. Why do you ask, Stevie Rae?”

“Well, your daddy’s dead in our world too.” Stevie Rae glanced at me and I nodded. “And so’s your mama. But before she died you had words with her, and whatever happened between you pretty much pushed our Aphrodite over an edge.”

“So? My mom’s a bitch. In any world, we don’t get along.”

“You almost drank and drugged yourself to death,” I said. “And when you hit rock bottom, that’s when you finally were able to get free of your crappy parents and get over the crappy things they’d done to you. You finally grew up.”

Aphrodite narrowed her eyes at me. “I am a grown-up blue vampyre and a Prophetess of Nyx.”

“I wasn’t talking about that. You were that in my world too.”

“No. You said I lost my Mark. I wasn’t a vampyre yet.”

I sighed. “Okay, yeah. What I’m trying to make you understand is that—”

“I get it. It’s dangerous. I’m going to lose something in exchange for doing this good thing. Fine.” Aphrodite turned to meet Dragon’s gaze. “If I do this will you believe I’m different? Will it make up for Lenobia?”

“It will not bring her back, of course,” Dragon said. “But it is a sacrifice worthy of her, and she would appreciate it.”

“Good. Then it’s settled. We’re going to the football game and I’m going to make sure the Red Army gets woke.”

* * *

That night sped by. The cave—which I didn’t get nearly enough time to explore, but could tell by just the little I saw was completely amazing—was filled with energy and movement as Dragon had the entire Resistance headquarters scrambling to get ready to mobilize.

“But how are you going to sneak all of these Resistance fighters into the game without Stark and the rest of them getting suspicious?” Aphrodite asked.

We’d moved from the briefing room to cluster more comfortably around the main hearth fire near the entrance of the cave. Aphrodite’s sight had returned and I kept getting taken aback by how familiar she was—yet different from my Aphrodite. This one was thinner and somehow looked older, though they were exactly the same age. And she seemed sadder and more vulnerable, which she definitely tried to hide under a typically arrogant Aphrodite facade. That was, of course, a lot like my Aphrodite had done when I’d first met her, but she’d been better at it than this one.

After knowing her for less than a day it was pretty easy for me to tell that this Aphrodite was lonely. Very lonely. It made my heart hurt for her, and it also made me understand, again, just how important friendship is. Without us—the strength and friendship of our Nerd Herd—Other Aphrodite was sad and lost.

I was determined to help her find herself.

“Easy-peasy!” Stevie Rae said. “The answer’s in Z’s backpack. All we need to do is make sure it stretches far enough to cover everybody who needs it.”

“What is she talking about?” Aphrodite asked me.

“I brought a big tub of professional cover-up for vamp tattoos with me. We thought we’d need it for Stevie Rae, and probably me too.” I held up my hands and then pulled aside the collar of my T-shirt to let them glimpse some of my extra tattoos.

“You went to a tattoo artist?” Aphrodite wrinkled her nose.

“Nope. Nyx gave me these. And more. Before I made the Change she used to give me an extra tattoo every time I did something major to show that I was walking her path.”

“I thought they were lovely before I knew they were a gift from the Goddess,” said Grandma, running her finger lightly over the intricate design on my palm. “Now I think them exquisite.”

“Thanks, Grandma. But it only takes a little dab of the cover-up stuff and a vamp becomes a human—even if it rains,” I finished.

Dragon nodded. “That is an excellent idea, though it will not work for Anastasia and me. Our faces are too well known.”

“Oh, I think you’d be surprised,” I said. “Cover your Marks. Change into some Eskimo Joe’s sweatshirts and OU hats and carry some pom-poms or whatnot, and I promise you no blue vampyre, especially a general or High Priestess, is going to pay any attention to you at all.”